FALL RIVER — The signs, five of them, tell you not to smoke. The signs are in English and Portuguese. There are no signs in Spanish. Outside the City Council chambers in Government Center on a Tuesday night, the taupe carpet is stained in quite a few places.

Inside, during the City Council Finance Committee meeting, councilors are backing away from bonding and its fruits. "We've borrowed ourselves rich," Councilor Ray Mitchell says. Councilor Linda Pereira says that $75,000 was too much for the fountain in the new Highland Park. Pereira knows that, in New England, fountains can't be used for much of the year.

Several councilors use the phrase "restore trust" in their remarks.

It's a year for austerity.

There are 28 people in the room who can be described as "spectators." Count the city councilors, those obviously employed by the city, reporters and those taping the meeting and you come up with a figure of around 20. Presumably, thousands more are watching at home.

Water is running fast in the gutters tonight, and there are four cars waiting at the red light at the corner of Pocasset and South Main streets, heading north. For the next three changes of the light, there will never be more than four cars waiting.

Inside, City Councilor Leo O. Pelletier, in a white dress shirt and suspenders, is the only male city councilor to remove his suit coat. He leans back in his chair.

"Howudoin'?" he asks new City Administrator Cathy Ann Viveiros.

Pelletier begins asking questions about claims against the city for cars damaged by potholes, saying that a lot of those complaints come from the Quequechan Street area.

"At least seven," he says.

And Pelletier, the only one with his jacket off, gestures with his glasses.

Leo, it turns out, thinks that asking a city councilor to help you get money from the city to fix your damaged car "ain't fair," but he's familiar with how the unfairness happens.

Pelletier says that, during his previous tenures as city councilor, constituents would approach him asking him to help them obtain money for cars injured by potholes. Pelletier says he'd take the matter to the Law Department and "put pressure on," until the Law Department paid the claim.

"I don't want all the people in Fall River calling me to get their money," Pelletier says, laughing.

Pelletier said people with a problem, such as payment for a damaged car, very often call the proper city agency first.

"And someone says, 'All right, we'll take care of it,' and then they don't do it," Pelletier says.

"They call somebody else," Pelletier says. "They don't do anything.

"Then they get fed up and they call us," Pelletier says.

Page 2 of 2 - There is no vote on Pelletier's description of how citizens interact with their government, nor do any of the other eight councilors speak to the issue.

There is still a regular meeting of the City Council to come tonight, and it is still raining.

"Side Streets" is a column from Marc Munroe Dion, one that draws on his knowledge of the area and his affection for the city where he was born. It's about people and places and history and the voice that only comes from one corner of southeastern Massachusetts.